Getting Bradford back on its feet...

Stafforce Recruitment is a leading recruitment agency in Bradford and as a local recruiter based in the city, keeping up to date with what is happening in the local economy is key so I always read the local business pages. What’s been jumping off the pages at me just recently is that Bradford is a buzz and things are starting to happen for the better. It’s great to see that regeneration and attracting investment into Bradford appears to be high on the agenda.

For many years Bradford has really been seen as the poor relation to its affluent neighbour Leeds and the recession did hit Bradford very hard. The past few years have been challenging with unemployment in the area being higher than the UK average…but that said, looking over the local marketing intelligence I picked out a few interesting facts and figures…

The local economy is still worth £8.3 billion, third largest in Yorkshire with first and second place going to Leeds and Sheffield.

There are a growing number of new start-up businesses

Bradford is ranked 22 in the top 100 UK towns for company growth, ahead of Leeds and Sheffield who came 44th and 80th respectively.

Bradford has over 1,280 production businesses…accounting for 12.8% of all employees compared to 9.8% in Great Britain as a whole

To me these are rays of light, especially if you consider them alongside the fact that Bradford is clearly determined to get back on its feet. And it definitely seems that Bradford is deserving of its label “Producer City” that I’ve seen in the press

There’s definitely a big focus on supporting the growth of Bradford-based businesses and getting more local people into work…and I can vouch for that first-hand. I’ve just put in an application in for funding to support new business developments based on the recent successes of Stafforce Recruitment Bradford. The application form might have taken a little time to complete, but hopefully it will be worth it because if it’s accepted then we’ll be granted a rebate on our annual business rates. As a growing recruitment agency we need to diversify and grow, and this funding will help us to recruit a new member of staff to help build our business in the engineering recruitment sector. There will be many other local businesses benefiting from recent initiatives I’m sure.

For me, everything that’s happening can only be for the good and the future is looking promising for Bradford. Hopefully soon success will become infectious in our local economy!

Julie Bates is the Business Manager for the Bradford recruitment agency. She is responsible for the day to day running of the Stafforce Bradford branch which oversees their operations in Bradford & Business Development for the North West in Industrial and Engineering Sectors.
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